Capítulo 4: Chapter 4
Kallaar's levity faded. "For your safety and ours, my princess, surely you must realize that. My father promised your mother that you would be looked after as best we could, and so Ahmla and I have done that all these years. But now that you are seeking a consort, I can be here as myself, with no more need for lies."
"What?" Shanna swallowed, hard, anger vanishing beneath a wave of disbelief and painfully happy surprise. She'd been the slightest bit smitten with Kallaarand Ahmla, if she was going to be honestsince meeting them, but they'd always firmly kept a divide. She was royalty; they were not.
Except Kallaar was royalty, apparently. His name was such a common one in Morentia she'd never given it a thought. There were hundreds of children across her kingdom who had her name, because naming a newborn after a royal born around the same time was a practice nearly as old as the sun.
He was royalty, and he'd come to compete to be her consort.
"I don't recall my stepfather sending an invitation to Morentia." She had requested he do so, as a courtesy to her mother, and he'd refused on the grounds of it being a waste of time and better not to give an impression of false hope.
Kallaar's sly grin returned. "Your stepfather? No. But your mother did six years ago, when she asked us to protect you."
Shanna's eyes stung, but she blinked the tears away. "I see. I also think this is best discussed later, as I am already running late." She needed a moment to sit down. Sort her thoughts. Decide if she wanted to scream or laugh or cry. "Come, we'll tend your horses, then I'll escort you to the castle."
"That's most gracious of you, Highness," Ahmla said, and gave Kallaar a shove before following him farther into the stables.
They led the horses along as she showed them where to put thema portion of the stable used almost exclusively by servants and less wealthy guests, since no noble or royal would be caught dead traveling anywhere save by dragon.
She tried not to stare while they worked, but it was difficult. It was always difficult, how fluidly they moved, their familiarity with the work they did, how well they worked together. Shanna had once worked that well with her mother, and with Astira before she'd been ordered to Cormiana as assistant to the ambassador, essentially banished unless Shanna could secure the throne and recall her.
Ahmla's haircut to his chin and strung with wooden beads carved to resemble various birds, beasts, and insectsclacked as he worked. More than once he was forced to stop because his mare nibbled at the beads.
When the horses were finally settled and happily eating, Shanna led the way out the rear entrance and along the servants' path to the back of the keep, through the enormous, always busy, and hot kitchens. Coming to a stop in the large servant hallway, which was a connection point to the rest of the enormous royal castle, she gestured to a large wooden door at the far end. "If you go through there, you'll find your way to the great hall. Look for Steward Graiss, I'm sure you remember him, and he will tend you properly."
"Thank you, Highness. We will see you at dinner."
She nodded, watched them departtrying not to stare at the way their leather breeches fit entirely too wellthen finally headed up the stairs to her own room, a large suite that included one of the eight turrets.
Her maids and best friend, Penli, awaited her. Shanna had originally met him in one of the royal gardensshe, a lonely princess, crying her eyes out, and he, a soldier many years older, crying quietly in a place he hadn't thought he'd be found. They were a strange pair to have become best friends, but she would not trade Penli for the world.
He threw his arms up when he saw her. "You! I am going to commit regicide! Why do you look like that now of all times?"
Shanna rolled her eyes and stripped off her clothes before striding to the steaming bath waiting for her. She scrubbed and washed quickly, grateful for the assistance two maids provided in washing her long, red-brown hair.
After climbing out, she dried off and stood still, save to move as bid, as all three maids got her dressed in the many layers required of a queen-in-waiting. The gown was purple, with an underlayer and sleeves of red. Adding her mother's rubies, she made an impressive sight, or so she was thoroughly told by Penli, who loved fashion more than fish loved water. If anyone else tried to wear his pink-and-green ensemble, they would appear garish and foolish, but Penli looked like a storybook herohe could have been a Queen's Champion, had that practice not fallen away more than a century ago.
He waited impatiently as the maids finished twisting and twining Shanna's hair into braids and swoops and curls pinned in place with glittering rubies and diamonds. "Dinner started ten minutes ago."
"Dinner starts when I arrive," Shanna replied. "What has you so restless and fussy today?"
"I'm restless and fussy? I'm not the one who picked a fight with the Evil Overlord this afternoon, Sweetpea, and we all know you only go and muck stables when you're feeling miserable, murderous, or both."
"Nobody asked you." Shanna managed the barest flicker of smile as she took the arm he offered and swept out of the suite. Guards fell into place in front of and behind her, men who served more as spies for her stepfather than as bodyguards, but there was little she could do about them. Their presence meant she couldn't tell Penli about Kallaar and Ahmla, so it would have to wait until later.
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